so much security for such a small man. nicolas sarkozy may be small but he made himself resonate in the breathtakingly beautiful hall of sorbonne this weekend. he resembles a bulldog, once he bites into his victim, he does not let go easily. his speaches are full of rhetoric and stories of maghrebian ladies living in france's banlieus looking for protection. no doubt, they need it. as an outsider though, his statements seems obvious almost to the point of seeming too simple. once you get through the well structured responses and the colourful examples, and the jokes of course too-which he manages to still here and there in between the tirades - the ideas are obvious: immigration should be selective, work weeks should not be legally restricted to 35 hours, and france does not have space to absorb 900 million inhabitants of the african continent, although most of them would prefer france. The only thing that fails my comprehension is how can anyone in their sane mind argue against these principles. And it seems to be, as an outsider to this whole election drama, that perhaps these are not the ideas being opposed by the french opposition parties that are close to winning. Here of course, one has to exclude the likes of Marie Le Penn.
Watching this debate, I came to the perhaps odd conclusion that the contestants in for the french presidency are perhaps not really talking about the same issues - in france, perhaps it is not the opposition of ideas but their prioritisation that will or will not bring sarkozy to the throne. And a throne it is in france. Bon chance alors...